


Hard Pill to Swallow

by TheFalconWarrior



Series: In Another Life [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Batfam Week 2020, Bruce "He's Not MY Kid Actually" Wayne, Dick is a good big bro, Gen, Meeting the Justice League, Metahuman AU, Tim Drake is Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23066128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFalconWarrior/pseuds/TheFalconWarrior
Summary: The Bats are metas.This is...not as life-changing as you'd think.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Tim Drake, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Series: In Another Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657690
Comments: 21
Kudos: 430
Collections: Tales from the Cave





	Hard Pill to Swallow

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, I only found out about Batfam Week like, 5 days ago, while I was supposed to be studying for midterms (still am) so enjoy my hastily thought-up, hastily written, semi-edited...things.  
> Day 1: Overprotectiveness | Meeting the Justice League | Metahumans AU

“So.” Hal plopped down into the spare chair in the monitor room. Diana glanced at him from her place in front of the monitor, but Batman, sitting next to her, didn’t so much as look up. “Is this one a meta, too?” 

Batman just grunted, still not looking away from the screens in front of him. 

“I’ll take that as a yes. So. What’s his story? He’s not an alien, is he?” 

That got Batman to turn around, eyebrow raised, and Diana laughed, loudly. 

“Thought not. Let’s see. I bet it has something to do with brain power, he put that whole case together way too quick.” 

“Do you.” 

“That means no,” Clark said from the doorway. Hal made a face at him. 

“You sure?” 

“Definitely,” Diana said, with an amused smile. 

Barry appeared in the doorway next to Clark, granola bar in hand, and leaned in, a huge grin on his face. “Face it, Lantern, the kid’s just smarter than you are.” 

Hal flipped him off. “By the way. Are you _sure_ Nightwing’s not an empath?” 

“Yes.” 

“And that the acrobat thing doesn’t have anything to do with powers?” 

And Batman actually _paused_. “I am...fairly certain.” 

“What does that mean?” Clark asked, looking intrigued. 

“They don’t.” 

“Hmph.” Hal slumped further back in his chair. “I don’t believe you.” 

“No surprise there,” Barry muttered around a mouthful of granola. 

“I agree,” Diana said. “I heard you telling Green Arrow that Batman was a vampire yesterday, Hal.” 

Hal flapped a hand at him. “That’s cause Arrow would totally fall for it, and he did. And I still don’t believe that Bats’ only power is seeing in the dark. Actually, I’m not even sure that that’s actually a power he has and he wasn’t just being sarcastic.” 

Batman sighed. “Hal, you have seen sufficient evidence over numerous missions to prove I am actually capable of seeing in low light.” 

“Sure, but then I bet there’s more. Hey, did this kid inherit shadow powers?” 

“For the last time, Lantern, I don’t _control_ shadows.” A beat. “And he’s not... _my_ kid.” 

“I don’t believe you,” Hal said, as there was a chorus of snorts from the other three. 

“Which part?” Barry asked, grinning. 

Hal grinned back. “All of it, obviously.” 

“Are you sure?” Nightwing asked. Robin leaned back against a wall, the rough brick of the building scraping against his bare arms, and watched the older boy half-turn away from the magnolia tree and bring a finger up to the comm in his ear. “He says he saw Two-Face speeding up 9th.” 

Robin could hear keys tapping in his own comm. “You sure his intel is good?” Oracle asked. 

“He’s always got good intel.” 

“Hm.” 

“He does! Look, I’m sorry about Tuesday. Morning is always flighty, I should’ve _known_. But we should follow this one, O, really.” 

“I’m taking your word for it, Nightwing, so this better be good. I’m mapping routes right now.” 

Nightwing nodded, then turned back to the magnolia and nodded again. “Thanks for the info. We really appreciate the help, have a good day, sir.” He turned around. “C’mon, Robin.” 

Robin stood straight, then paused. He glanced back at the sparrow in the magnolia tree, watching them through one beady black eye, nodded a little awkwardly, then turned and ran after Nightwing. 

They were swinging over the streets two blocks from 9th when Tim finally got together the courage to speak up. “Hey, Nightwing?” 

“Hm?” Tim watched the older vigilante flip onto the top of the rooftop, rolling to a stand. 

“So I was thinking. The weapons Two-Face stole—basically, they’re ammunition to spread an artificially mutated virus, right?” 

“No,” Nightwing said immediately, and Tim, about to shoot his grapple, stopped and blinked. 

“What?” 

Nightwing landed on the building across and turned to face him across the gap, gesturing for Tim to _come here_. 

Tim shot his grapple, swung, and landed next to Nightwing. In his sudden anxiety he stumbled landing, and Nightwing caught his shoulders to steady him. 

Tim looked up when he’d gotten his balance again but Nightwing didn’t move his hands. 

The older vigilante ducked his head a little, looking Robin in the eye—or as close as they could get with the masks on. 

“Robin,” Nightwing said. “You are _not_ going in there alone. For the love of all that is holy _please_ do not sneak off behind my back and go in there alone.” 

Tim felt his cheeks heat up. “I wasn’t _going_ to,” he said, defensive. “It’s just...an idea. I mean, viruses don’t affect me. Shouldn’t we take advantage of that?” 

“ _First of all_ ,” Nightwing said, “We don’t have enough intel to be sure of anything. We know very little about the mutations in the virus, if that’s even what we’re dealing with. I mean, we’re _very_ sure, but—look, Robin. We don’t know how your immunity works. Sure, you might not be affected by, like, the flu, or the other viruses or bacteria that most people usually get sick from, but what if it’s not _all_ of them? What if there’s some virus out there that _can_ make you sick? What if this one can? _We don’t know_. And we are _not going to risk it_.” 

Tim chewed his lip. 

“And Robin, you’re doing amazing. You’re the smartest kid I know and an amazing detective, and you’re learning everything so fast. But you’re still new at this. There’s still things you need to learn. It’s gonna be a while before you’re able to go out and patrol alone and until then I’m not going to take the chance you might get hurt. And that’s the most important thing of all, got it? When you go in, the most important thing is _you come back out_. No unnecessary risks, okay?” 

Nightwing’s hands had tightened on his shoulders as he spoke. His eyes hadn’t wavered away from Tim’s face. 

Tim took a deep breath. “Okay.” He looked up at the man who’d pretty much declared them brothers (even when they weren’t actually related). “But...you too, okay?” 

There was a pause. “Huh?” 

Tim thought about nights spent following Batman and Robin and Nightwing. 

Quiet nights. For some reason, the first one to come to mind was when he’d watched Batman watch Nightwing and Robin crouched in a back alley. Nightwing talking quietly to a calico cat while Robin amused her kittens by making little light spots appear on the gum-spotted concrete. 

Nightwing barreling into Robin, curling himself around the younger boy as he rolled them behind a stack of crates, shelter from the bullets that sprayed around them. 

Batman, Nightwing, and Robin splitting up, the younger two headed to the Narrows whilst Batman went to Gotham Harbor on his own, even though Tim suspected he already knew the warehouse in the Narrows was empty and all the weapons dealers were gathered at the docks. 

He’d always been fascinated by their partnerships. How they seemed to go both ways. But there was a hierarchy, too, and watching from the shadows, Tim could see it. 

But...he knew, Bruce and Dick liked him. He knew he was Robin. He knew that they cared about him. 

But it still felt wrong to assume—he couldn’t quite believe—that Dick would be afraid for him the way he had for Jason, when the case started to get tough. That he’d ever consider pulling a Batman on Tim, quietly keeping him out of the more dangerous scenes whilst he planted himself firmly in those scenes himself. 

He didn’t know if he deserved to assume that Dick would put himself in danger for Tim. 

“Just...be careful?” 

A knowing smile spread slowly over Dick’s face. “Deal,” he said, then tugged Tim forward and into his arms. “I promise I won’t play the martyr and do anything stupid. I’ll try, anyways.” Tim felt his cheeks warm. It was times like this that he understood why people were convinced Dick was an empath. 

He wrapped his arms around Dick, returning the hug. 

He wanted to tell Dick how much he appreciated him. How badly he didn’t want to see his older brother hurt. “Good,” he whispered. Oh god. He didn’t know what else to say. He really _did_ sound like Bruce. But Dick squeezed him a little tighter, so maybe it was okay. 

Cue the weird, staticky sound of someone clearing their throat over the comms. 

“Sorry to break the moment, boys,” Oracle said. “But you really do need to get moving if we want to catch Two-Face _before_ he uses the potentially plague-spreading bioweapons.” 

**Author's Note:**

> BONUS:  
> 8-year-old Dick knew the trapeze was sabotaged because one of the monkeys told him. Everyone waves his insistences away as a grieving child coming up with ways to explain a tragedy.
> 
> "Precognition?"  
> "He prefers 'Big Brother Instinct'."
> 
> Jason can make like, little spots of light appear, like that spot you get when you reflect light off the face of your watch or something. All of Damian's cats love Jason. Damian does not understand WHY all his cats have to be so fond of light spots. When Jason isn't playing with the cats he's making the spots appear on his siblings' faces. or Bruce's.
> 
> Jason to Dick, while the two of them watch Tim tapping away at the Batcomputer: “You know, for the longest time I thought his power was that he didn’t have to sleep, and then I realized if that were the case he wouldn’t be chugging energy drinks and walking around with bag eyes.” 
> 
> Damian's meta-gene just recently activated. He's an empath and he has no idea what to do with this new development.
> 
> Okay, so yeah, I just got hit by the idea: So there's so many possible meta-powers that would fit right in for the batfam, because they ARE insanely skilled. BUT WHAT IF instead they all had some small, rather irrelevent seeming metagene (hey, they've gotta exist no?) and most what they do is still based on skill, but no one ever believes them and everyone's trying to figure out what their 'real' power is?


End file.
